Report: RFK Jr. says wife abused him

Robert Kennedy Jr. told a judge last year that his wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy, was physically abusing him, had run over and killed the family dog and threatened to kill herself in front of their children, according to a newly unveiled affidavit that was filed during the couple’s divorce proceedings.

The 60-page affidavit, published Monday by Newsweek, contains details of a troubled marriage that spiraled out of control as Mary Kennedy’s psychological health seemed to quickly deteriorate. She hanged herself in her Westchester County home last month.

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“Soon after Mary became pregnant with our first son, Mary, in a sudden rage about my continued friendship with [my ex-wife] Emily, hit me in the face with her fist. She was a trained boxer, and I got a shiner. Her engagement ring crushed my tear duct causing permanent damage … Mary asked me to lie to her family about the cause of my shiner,” reads Robert Kennedy Jr.’s 2011 affidavit.

In another part of the lengthy document, Robert Kennedy Jr., the son of former Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, describes how his wife allegedly ran over and killed the dog in the driveway.

“She had [our youngest son] Aidan call me to tell me. He was disconsolate and crying,” the affidavit in Newsweek reads. “I asked to speak to Mom and Mary came on the phone. She said I should come over and spend the night in my old room with the kids who were distraught. She said she intended to kill herself unless I called off the divorce and unless I promised to recommit to the marriage. She promised that if I came over she would stay in her room and wouldn’t see me or harass me.”

According to Robert Kennedy Jr.’s account of what happened next, when he arrived at his home, he found his estranged wife intoxicated.

“I opened the door and she leapt out of her bed and hit me with a roundhouse punch that, had I not blocked it, would have undoubtedly broken my face,” his affidavit reads. “Pointing to Aidan, she screamed, ‘You told this child you didn’t love me?’ and hit me again, raining blows down on me as I backed down the hall. She struck me maybe 30 more times or more.”

Mary Kennedy’s family has forcefully disputed the Newsweek story, calling the affidavit “scurrilous” and “nothing more than a brutal psychological weapon in the divorce case.”

“The affidavit, which Mary repudiated at the time, is full of vindictive lies,” the Richardson family said in a statement, according to the New York Daily News. “This latest piling on is proof perfect of the unbelievable emotional and psychological abuse that Mary endured during the last years of her life, and now in death.”

The statement continued, “Our hearts are breaking for what her children continue to witness. We hoped Mary could rest in peace. There will be a time and a place for the true facts to come out.”